Bowden's Gator Game Plan: Play It Cool If Streak Continues, Florida St. Coach Won't Self-destruct

November 28, 1987|By Barry Cooper of The Sentinel Staff

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, whose team is winless against the Florida Gators the last six seasons, has made a pact with himself. No matter what happens at Florida Field today, Bowden will not let his emotions boil over.

Though his team is favored to snap its puzzling losing skein against the Gators, Bowden is braced for a worst-case scenario.

If the Gators notch yet another victory, Bowden has promised himself to be a gracious loser, that he will accept the loss as simply one more break and then will get on with the rest of his life.

Such a position is a radical departure. In 1983, when the Gators wiped out FSU, 53-14, Bowden, frustrated, blurted out to reporters, ''Maybe if I can't beat the University of Florida they ought to get somebody else.''

The Seminoles, of course, have stuck with Bowden. He has a self-renewing contract and is likely to be in charge of FSU football until he retires.

As much as FSU fans would love to embrace a victory over the Gators, they have shown reluctance at placing undue pressure on Bowden. For sure, Bowden receives hundreds of letters and phone calls from Seminoles fans who have grown weary of losing to the rival they despise most.

However, none of that frustration has come even remotely close to spilling into a push to dislodge Bowden. He is, says Athletic Director Hootie Ingram, the coach, win or lose.

That is a welcome measure of consolation for Bowden but also a small one. He wants a victory over the Gators so badly that, he says, the idea dominates his thoughts every day.

''I was just thinking the other day, it's been something like 2,130 days since we beat them last,'' Bowden said. ''There is no doubt about it, I think about the game a lot, but I just can't help it. I realize how important this game is to our fans, and it is important to me, too.''

It is difficult to determine what, if any, effect losing to the Gators has had on the Seminoles' program and fans. For example:

Recruiting apparently is not an issue. Florida is such a fertile state for athletes that the Seminoles, Gators and Miami Hurricanes each year have more blue-chip prospects than they do grants-in-aid.

There apparently are few financial considerations, either. This year FSU, ranked third in the AP poll, is assured of one of its best campaigns, with some $3 million to be derived from three national television appearances and a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. The Seminoles booster clubs have grown by leaps and bounds, much of the success enjoyed despite the losing streak to Florida.

New student enrollment seems to hinge on whether the Seminoles play well over the course of the season, not how they fare against the Gators. This week, Bowden said, ''The last time we were this successful, we closed out enrollment in May.''

Bowl-game invitations usually don't figure into the outcome, either. Athletic directors for the schools wisely schedule the game for the week after bowl invitations are extended.

So it would appear that only the Seminoles' pride has been damaged by losses to UF. Everything else seems intact, although FSU must win today to keep alive its slim hopes for a wire-service national championship.

For much of its domination of FSU, the Gators have won because, Bowden says, they were the superior team. However, big games usually are won by the team with the best athletes, and over the last few years FSU's recruiting has been on a par with the Gators. It has been superior the last couple of seasons while UF has struggled with grants-in-aid lost to a now-finished, two-year probation.

FSU is so stocked with talent that it is virtually two- or three-deep at many skill positions. That kind of skill has left Bowden with few excuses for losing to Florida. Yet, the Seminoles have come up short against the Gators even when they have outplayed them.

Last season, with FSU ahead, 13-10, late in the fourth quarter, Bowden ordered an ill-advised field-goal try from the Seminoles' 39. A punt might have pinned the Gators and turned the outcome of the game over to FSU's defense, which had played marvelously. But Bowden decided on the kick, which was blocked. The Gators recovered, and quarterback Kerwin Bell drove them for a winning touchdown.

''I felt like that was one of the two years we should have won the ballgame,'' Bowden said. ''We had perfect control of the game, and we let it get away. We had control of the game, the tempo, everything, and then we let it get away. In 1982 we had them down 10-0, and then they come from behind and beat us (13-10).

''Those are the games that hurt you the most, the games you feel like you should have won.''

Over the years, the Seminoles have conjured up gimmicks to snap the jinx. ''One year, we would work the team hard the week of the game,'' Bowden said. ''Then when that didn't work, we decided to work 'em easy the week of the game. I remember once we put little reminders in their lockers each week of how important the Florida game was.''